Debating web development toolsets

[Kareem Shehata]

I'm still wrestling with the problem of choosing a good language for web
development projects.  As I mentioned previously, I'm looking to get into
some web development this year, but have no idea where to start.

I've looked into Ruby on Rails, and I have to admit the concepts of "Agile
Development" sound sweet, but is it too good to be true?  Based on all of
the articles, below I don't know who to believe anymore.  I simply don't
have enough time to learn every language and then pick the best one -
particularly since problems like maintenance and support can't be predicted
by a quick tutorial session. 

Here's what I've figured out, and I don't see a good option out of the
bunch.  Please feel free to add your own thoughts, a good discussion on the
ins and outs of different languages would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

-kms



PHP: The defacto web standard?  It seems to be supported everywhere, scales
well, and has lots of libraries, but can be difficult to maintain and get up
to speed on.


Ruby On Rails: If you believe the marketing hype, it'll do everything
including walk the dog three times a day with one line of code.  Is this yet
another web fad, or is RoR something worth pursuing?


Java: Difficult to develop with, not widely supported, and high hardware
requirements.  Overall, sounds like an expensive PITA.  It might be good for
enterprise-level apps with coders immersed in java for 5+ years, but not
good for smaller, quicker development-time apps.


ASP.NET: Gotta at least look at the MS options.  I know enough of the .NET
framework that I could probably get up to speed really quickly, and MS does
a pretty good job of making things easy.  They also do a very bad job of
making it flexible, scalable, or secure.  Also locks in the platform to
being MS-only.


Python: Don't know much about python beyond Mailman.  Looks like a decent
scripting language, can it do reports and interface mySQL well?


Perl: "The Original Web Language" and I know it has a rabid following.  The
whole world can be built in Perl, but is it the best way to go?


Some site references:
Ruby on Rails debate
<http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/02/1811218>
(the martial arts and melodrama doesn't scare me, but idea of the community
imploding definitely does.  I don't plan on supporting this app forever, so
having something maintainable by others is really big)

<http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/23/1249235\>
<http://www.oreillynet.com/ruby/blog/2007/09/7_reasons_i_switched_back_to_p_
1.html>
More of the Ruby on Rails debate.



Comparisons

Are any of these accurate?
<http://www.cmswire.com/cms/industry-news/php-vs-java-vs-ruby-000887.php>
<http://www.syllogisticsoftware.com/papers/Web_Development_Technology_Compar
ison.html>

Any other good articles comparing languages/toolsets/platforms for web
development?


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